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Spring". These uprisings have led to dramatic social and governmental reconstructions in regions such as Egypt and Lybia, and to controversial conflicts in areas such as Syria. In the western
world, which has lent support to many of these popular uprisings, the general perception is that the uprisings are the result of a turning of popular support against Islamic governments.
While this view is somewhat skewed towards American geopolitics, the fact remains that analyzing the impact of Islam upon international governments can reveal certain insights into how liberalism and democracy
can be transformed in a society through the combination of religious and statist instrumentation. This paper will explore, in particular, the role that Islam has played in transforming Malaysias society
over the last few centuries. In the last three decades in particular, serious changes have come about in Malaysia, that are often considered to be the impact of the Islamic
government that has been established there. Changes have been observed in most pillars of society, and in societal institutions ranging "from banking to law, from dress to education policy", and
others; "almost no sector of Malaysian society has escaped the growing influence of Islam upon the socioeconomic and political make-up of the country" (Abbott & Gregorios-Pippas, 2010). The transformation has
largely been attributed to the conflict that has emerged between two dominant political parties in Malaysia: the United Malay National Organization, or UMNO, and the Parti Islam Se-Malaysia, an "Islamic
opposition party" (Abbott & Gregorios-Pippas, 2001). Of course, other sociocultural factors have also played a major role, and it would be remiss to attempt to explain the social transformation in
Malaysia through political instruments alone. For instance, one of the primary issues facing Malaysia in recent years is that of religious freedom; this being the case, however, religious freedom